Development of shampoo formulations with guarana extract: Influence of thickening agents in the texture profile

Abstract

Introduction: The texture analysis represents an excellent indicator for the physical stability evaluation of cosmetic formulations. This analysis can also be useful to evaluate the effects of the addition of ingredients that can modify the viscosity, such as botanical extracts, emollients and thickening ingredients. This way, it is possible to choose the formulation with greater acceptability, once the texture analysis can be correlated with the sensorial analysis. Thus, the aim of the present study was to develop a shampoo formulation added with guarana (Paullinia cupana) extract and to evaluate the texture profile, in order to choose the one with greater acceptability.Methods: To this end, eight shampoo formulations were developed. In four formulations was used acrylates/C10-30 alkyl acrylate crosspolymer as thickening agent in the concentrations of 1% and 2%, and in the other four, salt (NaCl) was utilized in the same concentrations. Half of the formulations were stirred manually, and the other half was stirred during 30 minutes at 300 rpm using a mechanical stirrer (Fisatom 713D). The texture profile evaluation was performed using a TA.XT Plus Texture Analyzer (Stable Microsystems, Surrey UK). The formulations were evaluated in terms of hardness and spreadability and the parameters calculated were hardness, elasticity, adhesiveness, cohesiveness, compressibility, firmness and work of shear.Results: In the obtained results, it was observed that the formulations with NaCl presented smaller values of hardness, firmness and work of shear, which are not desirable parameters in a shampoo formulation. The formulation with acrylates polymers at 2% and mechanical stirrer presented less hardness, adhesiveness, firmness and work of shear than the manual stirrer showing the influence of the process in the final result. Thus, the formulations with acrylates polymers at 2% concentration and mechanical stirrer showed the best texture profile for a shampoo formulation.Conclusion: The developed formulations with guarana extract presented suitable texture profile for the aimed purposes and, the agitation process and thickening agents under study had influence in the texture profile. In addition, the evaluation of texture profile was important during the formulation development for the choice of a formulation with suitable parameters, which can optimize the research & development protocol and predict sensory properties such as formulation spreadability.